The Tree
by Blue - The First Traveller
Summary: Based off of artwork by silkenstarrs on deviantART. Hiccup and new girl Astrid are playing at the old oak in their local park. When Astrid falls out the tree and is injured, what is young Hiccup going to do? Modern & Young Hiccup AU. One Shot might do another drabble if I come up with one.
1. The Tree

**This one shot is based off of a drawing by ****silkenstarrs**** of deviantART****. Just loved the image so much I HAD to create a story for it.**

** If you want to find the image search 'silkenstarrs the tree'**

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I yelped as I once again landed on my butt, which was now sore from constantly being fallen on. Above me I could hear cackling and full on hysterical laughter from the branches of the tree I sat under. In one of the higher branches, a lanky boy sat by the trunk, one hand resting on the bark and the other gripping at the branch he sat on. He needed to sit there to keep balance, otherwise he would throw himself off his very high perch, as his head arched back, and released long humoured laughs up to the lightly clouded sky. His name was Thomas Forson.

In the branch below was a very muscly boy, well muscly for an 8 year old, with black messy hair. Scott Jorgen was throwing fits, pointing at me with a beefy finger, while clutching at his stomach trying to control his laughter. Beside him stood a girl with her blonde hair braided into two long ponytails. Her hands were wrapped around the branch Thomas was sitting on and was pulling herself up until the other's laughter turned her attention, and an incredibly scary grin, to me.

"What's wrong, Useless?" Rhonda called to me, using everyone's favourite nickname for me, "Don't have the muscle?" she taunted while flexing her bicep as demonstration. And thanks to her short sleeved shirt, I could see she had alot muscle, much more than me anyway. She then pulled on the branch she was grasping, pulling herself up to stand on to her brother's perch.

"No," shrieked a squeaky cry from one of the higher branches. "Don't do that, Rhonda," said a large boy, though his mum says he's just husky. Freddy was hugging the end of one of the highest branches, which surprised me greatly. Considering his terrible P.E. abilities, I didn't understand how he got up there. I looked slightly lower than Freddy, to a beautiful girl in a blue dress with her golden hair flowing freely down her back; her ice blue eyes expressed serene happiness. Astrid Hoffman was my only real friend among the group, always persuading the others to let me hang out with them. She giggled angelically at Freddy's antics and called up to him.

"Freddy, if you can get up there you can get down again," Freddy looked down to her before squeezing his eyes shut from seeing how high he was.

"Astrid you're the one that got me up here, so unless you can help me down I'm stuck here," Astrid looked down to me and shook her, rolling her eyes as she did. This prompted me to laugh, Astrid then smiled down to me and I found myself lost in the beauty of that perfect face of glee, the perfect white teeth and naturally pink, perfect lips that curved in that perfect smile. Her perfect eyes shining with a joyful and perfect blue.

We were all hanging out at the park, walking and talking. Well, the others were walking and talking, I was just walking. Not even that, I was lagging behind while the rest of them were chatting happily, all ignoring me as best they could. I did get occasional sneers from the twins and Scott, and one look of pity from Freddy. But there was one thing I got which both confused and delighted me, that absolutely amazing smile.

Astrid Hoffman always gave me that smile, whenever our eyes traded glances, and I just didn't get why she gave it to me. She had only just moved in two months ago and had immediately taken some kind of liking towards me. Despite everyone on her street, my street and our school warning and degrading her for having me as a friend, she remained a friend to me, which I think is only going to ruin her life in the long run. I'm going to be the thing that she'll ultimately regrets when she grows up. I sighed as I lay down on the ground, watching as Astrid stood up on her branch and began walking along the wood, hands out on either side to balance herself properly. I immediately sat back up and looked at her with concern.

"Be careful," I warned. "It's okay Henry, I'm like a gymnast on a beam." she assured me, not too convincingly as she almost lost balance as she spoke. "Or a clown on a tightrope," I retorted, worry practically drooling out of my words. Astrid just rolled her eyes and continued to walk along her perch. I wanted to try and stop her but I knew it was useless; it was her idea to go climbing up the old oak, an idea everyone, except Freddy, agreed to.

"Don't be a buzzkill, Useless," Scott sneered "Your just upset 'cause you climb like a girl," Astrid glared threateningly at Scott and Rhonda began cracking her knuckles from the branch above him. Scott didn't notice this and just continued to taunt me, "You'll never be cool if you can't even do this," he jeered spreading his arm to gesture to himself as he remained in his perch. Determined to prove 'Snotface' wrong, I stood up and walked up to the tree trunk for the nth time.

"I could pull you up if you want," I heard Astrid call down; she had a look of both worry and pity. I shook my head and smiled at her. "No, I need to prove him wrong," I reasoned, and looked back to the large thick trunk. I jumped up to grab hold of a low hanging branch, so that I could pull myself up. I could feel the slight burn as my skin pressed on the rough wooden surface, but I ignored and began using my feet to walk up the trunk. Just as I was about pull myself onto the branch properly, it snapped and I plummeted sidelong onto the hard dirt.

"Henry, are you okay?" Astrid called. I smiled up at her and replied "Never better," I croaked "Shoulder should pop back into place in no time," Astrid giggled and looked back to Scott who was now laughing like a hyena. Then several things happened at once, while everyone else wasn't paying attention Thomas said something that made Rhonda react by stomping on his hand. This in turn made Thomas fall off his branch and grab at Scott's branch, causing the branch shake violently and throw Scott and Thomas out of the tree. Seeing all this transpire, Freddy began panicking and started to shift on his perch, because of Freddy's weight moving on the end of the branch, it eventually snapped and sent him plummeting to the ground towards Astrid's branch. Luckily he didn't land on the girl herself, but his plummet caused the branch shake and, due to the fact she had no where to hang on to, the shaking perch caused Astrid to lose balance and fall, screaming all the way.

I'm not quite sure what happened after that, all I knew was that my left knee really hurt, everyone was groaning in pain and Rhonda, still in the tree, was having a hysterical fit. I looked down to see why my knee was hurting, only to be met by Astrid's eyes, wide with surprise and her mouth hung open. I was just as shocked as her; I had somehow managed to catch Astrid in my arms and break her fall, her head now resting on my palm, above my knee and her legs hooked over my forearm. I couldn't think of anything to say or do, except stare back into her ice blue eyes. 'She's so pretty' I thought dreamily.

I eventually broke out my daze, blushing as I tried to move her gently off me. Astrid seemed to break out of her shock and also started move off of my lap, when she suddenly yelped in pain. "What's wrong?" I asked as soon as I heard the sound escaping her lips. She squeezed her eyes shut, tiny water drops catching on her eyelashes. "Leg," she squeaked, pointing a quivering finger at said limb. I looked down to see the that her leg had a huge graze and little cut on her kneecap, but those we're the minor, the worst part was-

"Big deal," Scott obnoxiously responded from behind me "So she has a scratch, I've had tons of those," he then grinned evilly at Astrid's pained expression "Girls just can't take a hit, am I right?" I seethed at his arrogant idiocy "Her leg is twisted, Scott," I yelled, causing the muscular boy to back up in surprise. I carefully adjusted my hands underneath Astrid, all time moving her leg as little as possible. I slowly got to my feet, for some reason everyone went wide eyed but I chose to ignore, probably just surprised that 'Useless' can pick someone up.

I ran through the streets to my house, keeping a firm hold of Astrid so that she didn't bounce and hurt her leg even more. A few people stared at me as raced down the street, causing me to panic, what if her parents found out? What if they see him with her like this? No doubt they'd blame me on account of my reputation around town. I looked back down to Astrid who was now clinging to my shirt to keep herself from falling, I could hear her whimpering slightly from the pain. Seeing her so vulnerable really stabbed at my heart, in the past two months that I had been friends with Astrid I had never seen her look weak, at all. She was always so strong and to see her like this felt, disturbing to say the least. I steeled myself and kept going, if Astrid couldn't be strong now, then I'll have to be strong for her. She had done too much for me to just drop and leave.

I stood in front of my front door and kicked at it lightly. Astrid looked up when she heard the noise and her head swivelled to look at her surroundings, her eyes looked behind me and she frowned. "Hiccup, your parents aren't home," she stated, pointing to the empty driveway where my parents cars usually were. "I know," I responded "My dad is at a council meeting, and my mum is participating in a sponsored marathon for animal rights, so she's out of town," I explained, kicking at the door a second time. "Then whose going to open the door?" she asked, completely confused, I grinned at her confused expression and kicked the door one last time.

Seconds later, we heard the sound of clinking metal, then something scratching at the plastic door and the unmistakable clicking of the lock. The door then swung open to reveal soul-piercing green eyes that stared straight at me. My smile widened as I introduced my best friend to my best human friend, "Astrid, Toothless. Toothless, Astrid," The Bombay cat, deciding that the fact that his owner was carrying an injured girl wasn't interesting, let go of the door handle and stalked off round the corner and out of sight.

"Hello to you too, bud," I sarcastically greeted. Astrid giggled at my joke before wincing again, reminding me that this wasn't a social visit. I walked into the lounge and laid her down onto the couch. "Just wait and I'll call my uncle," she gave a weak smile and nodded. I ran out of the room and went to the phone that rested on a table by the stairs. I then pulled up the right number and waited, eventually someone picked up and a thick Scottish accent came from the earpiece.

"This is th' Berch residence, Gerald speakin',"

"Uncle Gobber, it's Henry,"

"Ah, 'iccup, what can I do fo' ya?"

"I have a friend here and she's hurt her leg, can you come and help?"

"Sure, how bad can it be? See you in a few minutes," I tried to tell him that the leg was twisted, but he hung up before I had chance. I sighed and put the phone back on its stand, I knew I was panicking and over thinking the situation, but I could help but worry. What if the leg is permanently broken, what if Astrid could never walk again? What if she had to get it amputated? She would hate him forever because he didn't save her fast enough. Then a worse possibility came to mind, what if she was dying? I'd seen a news report this mourning about how a woman died from bleeding on the inside of her body, it was entirely possible that Astrid could be suffering the same thing. 'Well what are doing standing here and not checking if she's ok?' I mentally chastised myself.

I walked back into the lounge, only to see Toothless and the injured blonde having a stare down. "Uh, am I interrupting something?" I asked, catching Toothless attention for two and a half seconds before he refocused on Astrid. "He hasn't stopped staring at me since he came into the room," the blond explained, angling her head as best she could to look at me "Am I in his seat or something?"

"No," I responded "Toothless likes to sleep on top of the radiator, for some odd reason," I was puzzled by the black cat, what was he doing just staring down Astrid? I crouched down towards him and held out my hand to him, turning my head to face away. As always, I felt soft smooth fur brush through my fingers and an equally soft purr, as the ebony feline rubbed his head along my palm.

"What was all that about?" Astrid broke the silence and Toothless broke the bond to continue his stare at the blue eyed girl. "Oh, Toothless doesn't like it when people see him as cute," Toothless interrupted me, hissing at the very word, and then skulked off to find something to do. "Anyway he doesn't like when people call him 'that' so you have to not be looking for him to do something 'that' with you," Astrid giggled, whether at Toothless or at my phrasing, I'm not entirely sure, but seconds after the discussion there was a knock at the door.

I attempted to lift myself from my crouch, but suddenly a huge pain shot through my leg. I tried again only to receive the same result. 'I must have pulled a joint,' I thought. I looked over to where to Toothless disappeared to, said pet whirled his head round to me and I could almost hear him saying 'Answer the door, you dork,'

"Toothless, my leg hurts I can't get up, you're gonna have to answer it," Toothless responded by yawning and once again disappearing. Rolling my eyes I called out to the visitor, "It's open," Seconds after Gobber walked into the room with a small medical box, Uncle Gobber was a large fat man who had a long braided moustache on his face that sort of looked like a yellow hairy sausage. A smile was on his face, presenting his loose silver tooth, until he saw Astrid's leg. "What happen' ta you two?" he asked, I explained to him the events at the tree and he immediately got to work Astrid's leg.

In an attempt to distract her from what my large uncle was doing, I decided to introduce Astrid. "Astrid, this is my uncle, Gobber Berch," Astrid laughed a little "Gobber? How did he earn that name?" Gobber groaned as I prepared to tell the story.

"We were at a council barbeque and my mum had somehow managed to get Gobber in. In a few seconds he was getting silly because of the beer, and he was telling everyone this story that made no sense to anyone while chomping down on an overstacked burger. Everyone was getting bored of him until I yelled 'Gobber won't stop gobbing, not even when he's gobbling,' Everyone burst out laughing and it just stuck,"

By the end of the story, Astrid was rolling around, laughing with her legs pinned still by a red faced Gobber. Toothless then jumped onto Gobber's shoulder from nowhere, and proceeded to open Gobber mouth and look inside, only leaving Gobber's open maw to jump down and play with the large man's silver tooth. That did it for both Astrid and I; we were both thrown into hysterics, as the black feline continued paw at his new shiny toy.

When we finally had are laughter under control, I noticed that Gobber was now smirking at me, but I didn't know why? "That's not'in', lass," he said to Astrid "You should 'ear how 'iccup got 'is nickname," I paled as my uncle put emphasis on the word Hiccup. Astrid eyes went wide with glee and she leaned up a bit to look at Gobber and tell him to continue. "No, no, no," I interrupted instinctively, "She doesn't want to hear about that,"

This response caused Astrid's face to brighten even more, "Oh yes I do," she countered and looked to Gobber who opened his mouth to begin. Thinking quickly I said "Gobber, I'll get your tooth from my cat if you promise not to tell her, ever," Hearing his name, Toothless perked up. He grabbed Gobber's tooth and place it before the large man, before sitting down. "See?" I said, then I noticed something, Toothless hadn't come to my rescue, he just wanted to take away my bargaining chip, and the mangy furball was now sitting waiting for Gobber to tell his story.

"We were at my sister, Valerie's party, about two weeks after the barbeque" Gobber started grinning evilly. "Anyway Hiccup was extremely giddy that day and was guzzling as much fizzy drink down his throat as possible, I swear he had twelve full cups of lemonade in less than fifty seconds, and don't get me started on the coca cola," Astrid laughed a little at this, but I knew that the stort was about to get much worse. "So about eighty cups, later Henry's granddad told him a joke, which got him laughing uncontrollably, until he hiccupped. No ordinary hiccup either, this one echoed through nearly the entire house, and they kept coming, one after another. He even started choking on his hiccups until his father, Stuart, managed to scare them out of him. Once he'd stopped and calm down, it came to near everyone's attention, that Henry had laughed and hiccupped so hard, he actually wet himself,"

Astrid was almost wetting herself now, she was laughing so hard that I swear she was suffocating. I hid my face behind my hands to hide the blush on my face. From between my fingers I can see Toothless staring at me and I swear he was smirking, the useless lazy-. 'Wait,' I thought as I looked at him, he had this ominous mischievous aura, emitting from his stare. My hope said 'He wouldn't,' but reality, who always knew better stated 'Oh he would and he is,' Just as predicted Toothless opened his mouth and made a tiny squeak, that sounded very much like the black cat had, well, hiccupped. Astrid began wheezing through her laughter, only just managing to breathe between her uncontrollable guffaws.

Gobber then stood up from Astrid's leg silently nodding, before turning to me. "Now let's 'ave a look at yer war wound," he said pointing to my leg. I rose my hand in assurance "It's just a sprain," Gobber's went slack jawed at my statement "A sprain?" he yelled exasperated "'iccup, 'ave ya actually looked a' it?" Now that I thought about, I hadn't actually checked my leg to confirm it was a sprain. Looking down, I realised that my knee cap was caked in dried blood and large cut in the center.

"Henry," Astrid shrieked, she was glaring menacingly at me, but why she was so angry I couldn't quite understand. "You brought me here from the park, called your uncle to check on me, and didn't think to look after yourself," I couldn't help but be surprised by how angry she was, I never had a friend who cared like she did. Knowing that I'd die if I didn't explain myself, I opened my mouth to speak, but all that came out was a pained yelp as Gobber began cleaning the blood on my leg.

"I didn't know it was that bad, I was a little busy making sure you were okay," I hissed through the pain. "Well you should've dealt with your leg first," she responded disapprovingly, but I definitely saw her blushing a little. There was a long awkward silence after that until Gobber packed his med kit and stood. "Alrigh' lad, I'll be of' then, don' le' this 'appen aga'n," he said, pointing at me accusingly.

When he left Astrid and I were both silent, staring at anything but each other. Now that the drama was over, things were too awkward for me to think of anything to say. I chanced a glance at the beautiful girl on my couch, who was now rubbing her healed leg. She was frowning, clearly in deep thought. I knew she was still angry at me, I could feel it, she then turned to face me and she gave me a small, uncertain smile.

"Thank you," she said. I swear my heart stopped, jumped, then jolted with those two words. She thanked me. Astrid thanked me. I was stunned and my face obviously showed confusion, because she rolled her eyes and spoke further "For getting me here and taking care of me, it was really sweet," she blushed lightly and started stroking her flowing hair timidly. I shrugged off her thanks and replied nonchalantly "To be honest I didn't even know I had this bad of a leg," I looked up to meet her eyes "I was too busy worrying about you," Astrid smiled at those words and I swear I was melting, normally those smiles she gives me, make my face brighten until I can't help but smile back. But this smile was nervous, uncertain, yet determined, and had a much bigger effect on me. Her smile disappeared and was replaced with a small frown and a thoughtful look.

"Henry?"

"Yeah?"

"Why does everyone keep saying bad things about?" I sighed at the question, I was hoping to avoid this topic, but Astrid was stubborn when curious so there was no way of dodging.

"Because I'm a screw-up, every time I try to do something I always end up making a mistake and causing a big catastrophe , or getting someone hurt, like today,"

"What do you mean?" Astrid looked bewildered. "You didn't do anything wrong today,"

"It's my fault your leg got twisted," I stated bluntly. Immediately after speaking Astrid slapped me on the cheek, her frown deepening. I was hurt, more emotionally than physically and that slap hurt a lot. I knew she would be mad when she realised I was the reason for her injury, but I didn't think she would hit me.

"You listen close Henry," she seethed "Because I'm only going to say it once," I braced myself for the worst chastising of my life.

"This is not your fault, my leg was broken by a fall caused by Freddy and that was something he couldn't stop. If anything you made the situation a little better by catching me. Even if this was your fault, you've apologised and made up for it by taking care of me. And so what if you make mistakes, everyone does, it doesn't mean people should call you names and isolate you. Promise me that you don't blame yourself for this," the last sentence was commanded, but I was too stunned to follow. Astrid had just yelled at me for all the opposite reasons in my head. She had just defended me from myself, and all though sounds weird, it made me immensely happy.

"Henry," she warned, still glaring at me as she brought me back to reality to see she had raised her hand to slap me again.

"I promise that I don't blame myself," I responded quickly, fearing she would strike if I wasn't fast enough. Astrid's face lit up immediately and she grinned, lowering her hand. "Good," she stated sternly, before shifting her body to sit up properly. Seeing the open space on the couch, Toothless jumped up and curled around Astrid, before lying on her lap, causing her to giggle and stroke Toothless, behind the ears.

I slowly got up and sat next to her, placing my hand on her shoulder to stop her, I smiled evilly. She gave me a questioning look and watched as stared tickling Toothless under the chin. My hand slowly reached lower to the nape of his neck. Once I was at the right spot, I scratched roughly on his skin. Toothless is eyes shot wide with surprise for a moment, before drowsily closing as he slumped onto Astrid's lap contently purring in his slumber. We both laughed at the sleeping feline and I suddenly felt drowsy myself. I turned to Astrid to see she was fighting to keep her eyes open as well. She slowly, and sleepily, let her head rest on my shoulder, her hair tickling my side.

"Astrid?" she responded by looking up at me slightly. "You are the best friend I have ever had," she smiled as we both began to drift into slumber. "And you are the best friend I will ever have," she replied and kissed my cheek. I could feel the heat in both our red cheek as they brushed against each other and we fell into a quiet, peaceful sleep.

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**I'm surprised by how long this took to write, but am happy with how it turned out. I know Astrid is WAY OOC, but she's a little girl in this not the 'lop its head off with an axe' girl we know in the film, so I'm sure you can forgive me. Please read, review, follow, fave and all things along those lines, and don't forget to check out my other stuff.**

**Peace Out, ****Chaos In**

**Blue**


	2. EMERGENCY, NO TIME TO EXPLAIN

**GUYS! STOP WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING! I HAVE IMPORTANT, NEED-TO-KNOW, LIFE DEPENDENT, EXCITING ABSOLUTELY CRAZY NEWS.**

**AFJC'S RISE OF THE RIDER, ONE OF THE GREATEST HTTYD FICS IN THE HISTORY OF HAS BEEN UPDATED AFTER A LONG AND LENGTHY WAIT! FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T READ IT, YOU MUST LEAVE NOW, GO FIND THAT BEAUTIFUL PIECE OF FICTION AND READ IT UNTIL YOUR EYES WEEP, THEN TAKE A 10 MINUTE BREAK AND CONTINUE! YOUR DIGNITY AS A HTTYD FAN DEPENDS ON IT.**

sincerely

Blue


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